[Frank777]

Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky Just wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hospitals Do you really believe the Romans and Greeks didn't treat their ill in centralised locations? What's wrong with your head? (Even this history is so euro-centric I suspect it's missing hospitals that existed in our oldest civilisations in Asia and Asia Minor)...

Oh come on. That's like saying that cavemen taught their kids, so Christians didn't pioneer the public education system in North America.

The Roman system of health care was largely reserved for the well-off, and mostly took place in personal homes.
Christians started what we now recognize as hospitals, during an epidemic.

Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky And started it too, and were defending it and segregation to this day! WOO free muslim black labor!

There was truly a plethora of indefensible stupidity within Christianity around the origins and propagation of the African slave trade.

But I would point out that for 1500 years after the Resurrection of Jesus, Christians went far and wide across the Earth, preaching to all who would listen that all the children of Adam had been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb. The New Testament catalogues the Apostles' journeys and archeology and historical evidence showcase their zeal to take the Gospel all across the known world.

Ideas that the Bible's Book of Genesis was only myth, amidst the Age of Rationalism/Reason/Enlightenment cemented the notion that there were different races of mankind - an idea foreign to the Bible's historical take. That cultural lie penetrated the North American Church, and even split whole denominations. But faithful Christians held out, challenged and worked to eventually overthrow the slave trade.

Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky This is nonesense. There are 'churches' that absolutely don't do any of these things. And because of your fast and loose definition of evangelical church you will merely say they aren't *really* evangelical churches.

Just because you don't know what goes on inside a church doesn't mean stuff doesn't happen.

My phrasing was careful. Not all churches run all of those outreaches themselves, but they still support and use them. Local food and clothing banks might be community based, but almost every church runs collections that are dropped off monthly. Ditto for Crisis Pregnancy Centres, where a church might drop off used toys, diapers and formula. A city doesn't need 58 crisis pregnancy centres.

Likewise, only one church building in a city might host a Celebrate Recovery, DivorceCare or GriefShare group meeting, but all the churches in the city offer referrals for people with personal issues, divorce or grief counselling. {Not to mention hosting general AA groups & others.)

Here in Downtown Toronto, churches rally around ministries like The Scott Mission and Yonge Street Mission to fight homelessness and hunger. Plus free dental clinics and educational endeavours (schools and such). And I've barely got started. Almost every congregation supports overseas missions work as well. We have a nagging tendency to show up first in war zones and other distressed areas and leave after everybody else. Ask almost any foreign war correspondent. Or Charles Darwin.

Call me when you have a progressive NGO that can accomplish even a fraction of that, while still focusing on their primary mission.

Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky He wasn't even real. And yes, ground well covered.

If that was true, one would need to ask:

When was the last time a fictional person had that kind of impact across an entire planet for thousands of years?